Centocelle,
Roma |
Roman
Aquaduct, Centocelle (Rome)
Dear
Devotees,
Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to
Srila Prabhupada!
Every day, thanks to Srila Prabhupada's love, I have
the opportunity to go out and distribute his books.
Recently Lilananda Prabhu and I have been distributing
books in a working-class area of Rome known as
Centocelle.
Visualize blocks of flats at least seven storys high,
working-class dwellings where you find the strangest
situations and the worst smells emanating from within.
Below the apartment complex is an interminable series
of shops where the people, under a high dose of
passion, enter and exit without taking notice of
anyone around them. Now add all the raucous noises of
the city: welcome to Centocelle!
Unfortunately, yesterday I woke up late, and so I
could not finish my rounds before our morning program
(here it starts at 6:15 am). So after doing various
things, I managed to go out at 11 o'clock. While
driving toward Centocelle, I was trying think of a
place to finish my rounds peacefully, but I could not.
Then I had an idea: on previous days I had noticed a
street right before reaching "the jungle area" that
led to a zone of humble villas that might be peaceful.
Once there, I knew I had done the right thing: there
were airplanes in the sky and trains on the tracks,
but it was much more peaceful than the rest of the
area. I parked the car and went to chant. There
weren't many passersby, but every once in a while
someone would appear, mostly older people, curiously
looking at this strange person dressed in white, with
no hair and murmuring to himself. I would say hello in
a friendly way and try to put them at ease, but
unavoidably the word spread in the area and more than
one person "by chance" walked nearby to see the
strange sight. After finishing my rounds and honoring
prasadam, I went forth to distribute books. After
visiting some houses, I reached an old green wooden
gate, a young man and woman came to open the gate and
invited me into their garden. I learned that they were
brother and sister, Antonio and Stefania. After a
while their sister Maria joined us; she was very
curious to hear about the books. While I spoke,
Stefania went away three times, later explaining to me
that she had to check on her three-year-old daughter
Helena, who was having difficulty breathing. I learned
she had difficulty especially during sleep, and so it
was very important that special care be taken at that
time.
I saw that these people were very simple and innocent,
not wealthy at all but very well disposed to hear
about Krsna. After some time their parents arrived and
Antonio exclaimed, "Mom, Dad, he is a Hare Krsna
monk!" The mother jokingly said to me: "I saw you
walking back and forth before and thought you had just
escaped from a clinic nearby!" We all laughed. The
father, in a wise mood, said, "But I told them that
you were meditating!" (In fact, I had met him earlier
on the street, where he told me that he already knew
the devotees and that he was a follower of Father Pio.
I sensed then that he was not interested in the books,
so I politely greeted him and walked on).
After I had spoken to them for twenty minutes,
Stefania, Helena's mother, felt inspired to buy The
Journey of Self-Discovery. Enchanted by this simple
family, I decided to give them a BTG [Back to Godhead
magazine] for free. Then I
invited them to the Sunday Feast and left. When I meet
such people, I feel the urgency to improve myself and
become a better instrument in Srila Prabhupada's hands
to distribute the transcendental knowledge found in
his books.
Around 5 p.m. I decided to head back to the temple.
While walking to the car, I thought of Maria,
Stefania's sister. I remembered how attracted she was
by devotional music, and since I had a CD in the car,
I decided to go to their home and give it to them as a
gift. They had all left such a nice feeling in my
heart.
As I approached their house I saw Stefania standing
outside. As soon as she saw me she called to me
loudly: "Padre Giovanni! Padre Giovanni!"
"I'm coming!" I called.
Breathlessly she continued, "As soon as you left us,
my daughter Helena woke up and ran toward me with a
very blissful face, such as I had never seen before,
and exclaimed, 'Mom, mom, I dreamt of an angel with no
hair!!'
"I said, 'Oh! And what was He like?'
"'He was wonderful -- bright-faced, without hair, but
with a pony-tail on the back of his head and a sign on
his forehead. He was baptizing everybody!'"
Upon hearing that, I was a little confused. Then the
grandmother said, "I took your magazine and showed it
to Helena, asking her to tell me if she recognized the
angel as I turned the pages. When I reached the first
page, where there is a picture of your spiritual
master in saffron clothes, Helena opened her eyes wide
and pointed to him: 'Here he is! It's him! It's
him!!'"
At this point, I have to admit, I struggled to hold
back my tears. Srila Prabhupada had appeared in the
dream of this special soul in the body of a little
girl, just as I was in the garden presenting his
books!
The grandmother continued: "We were all amazed and
asked Helena if he had told her something. She said
'Yes, I remember that he was speaking about books,
books, reading books.'" At this point a shiver went up
my spine—it really was Srila Prabhupada!
They invited me into the house to meet Helena. I
noticed the little girl playing with her cousin, but
when she turned and saw me with the tilak and no hair,
she retreated and started to cry: "I don't want to
see! I don't want to see!" She hid behind a wall, and
Stefania took her into another room.
Meanwhile, the grandmother told me Helena was not new
to these miraculous encounters. "Once, while Helena
was in the hospital, she told me that Padre Pio was by
her side telling her to be peaceful because everything
would be ok." Curious, the grandmother had shown her a
photo of Padre Pio, and Helena had said that it was
him! Another time, Giovanna (the grandmother) dreamed
that Pope Jean Paul II entered their house carrying a
letter and saying, "This is the letter you are all
waiting for. You can give it to Helena. Everything
will be ok." At that time the entire family was in
anxiety, waiting for a reply from the Vatican Hospital
about whether Helena had a certain rare and grave
illness. The day after that dream, a letter arrived
saying she did not.
Feeling at ease in that house, I started preaching
about the importance of book distribution and how this
service is so dear to Srila Prabhupada. Helena calmed
down but was still afraid of me, so after a little
while I gave them the bhajan CD and left. While
driving back to the temple I was moved and had a
constant thought: Srila Prabhupada in His infinite
mercy never leaves us. He is present when we read his
books, and much more when we distribute them. At the
temple I told the devotees what had happened, and they
were all enthusiastic and full of gratitude. They also
perceived Srila Prabhupada's presence.
I had an idea: I asked for Helena's birthday details
and gave them to Ramanuja Dasa, a devotee from Peru
who is living in Rome. He has studied Vedic astrology
extensively and teaches it. After a week, during the
Sunday Feast, Ramanuja called me aside to show me
Helena's astral chart. "You know, Prabhu," he said,
"I've been doing this work for about twenty years, but
I have seen an astral chart like this one only once or
twice! This is a very elevated soul. She has all the
planets favorable for spiritual life, she's
intelligent, and she has positive karma. For sure in
her last life she was a devotee."
Upon hearing those words, I felt very lucky. I've been
going on sankirtana for a whole year, but I never had
a meeting like this one. I went to visit them again
four or five times, bringing them prasadam, garlands,
devotional pictures, music CDs, and t-shirts for
Helena.
I learned that the miracle continued: From the day of
the "meeting with the angel," Helena has told the
story to everyone she meets, and even if she cannot
read, she opens Srila Prabhupada's books often
because, she says, "Prabhupada told me to read." In
her room she insisted there be a photo of Srila
Prabhupada and one of Gopal Krsna close to her bed.
She often wants to hear stories about Krsna, and in
particular she likes the maha-mantra. When she listens
to the maha-mantra, she insists on wearing a t-shirt
with a picture of mother Yasoda and Krsna, and then
she dances while chanting Hare Krsna, Hare Krsna,
Krsna Krsna, Hare Hare/ Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama
Rama, Hare Hare. Simply wonderful!
This is Srila Prabhupada's mercy! Even a child of
three can perform devotional service to the Supreme
Personality of Godhead! I sincerely hope this story
can infuse in the core of your heart the desire to
serve more and more this eternal mission, which only
Srila Prabhupada could have founded: ISKCON, the
International Society for Krishna Consciousness.
Your aspiring servant,
Bhakta Giovanni Battista
